Community Snow Drawing with artist Sonja Hinrichsen: Day 2

Sonja Hinrichsen is an environmental artist who first came to Steamboat Springs in 2010 via a Colorado Art Ranch residency at The Nature Conservancy's Carpenter Ranch. She returned during winter 2012 for a series of community snow drawings on Rabbit Ears Pass that received national and international attention.

Sonja returns during winter 2013 to lead a single snow drawing on Lake Catamount. The local community is invited to join her in creating this large, landscape-scale work of art.

Participants must contact the Steamboat Springs Arts Council to sign up: info@steamboatspringsarts.com. Bring your own snowshoes, snacks and water -- and dress for changing winter weather conditions. Car pooling to Lake Catamount is strongly encouraged, especially on Saturday when parking will be limited.

What's a snow drawing?Check out this video of the community artists at work last winter on Rabbit Ears Pass...

“Snow Drawings” is an ongoing project where I “draw” large designs in the environment by walking lines into fresh snow surfaces with snowshoes. Ideal “canvases” are deforested areas and frozen lakes. The finished pieces are ephemeral. While they take hours to create, their duration is entirely unpredictable. Sometimes they are coated over by new snow shortly after completion.

I began this project during an artist residency in Snowmass Village in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Out of play I started designing patterns in my mind, which I then transferred onto the snow. My designs have since become more elaborate and refined, and I have continued this project in other landscapes across the USA.

In February 2012 I worked with community volunteers from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This enabled me to create monumental pieces. During two community events that combined art-making and fun outdoor winter activity in a stunning landscape at Rabbit Ears Pass in the Western Colorado Mountains, we created large drawings that could only be seen from the air in their entirety – and only for a few days. Volunteers greatly enjoyed their partaking in these outdoor art-making events.

As an environmentalist it is important to me that my interventions in nature are subtle and leave no lasting traces. I am not interested in creating lasting artworks, as I believe that our world is over-saturated with man-made products. I like to unfold my work into large immersive experiences, however I prefer that it live on in its documentation only, and – hopefully – in the memories of my audiences as well as those who participate in the creative effort.

I hope that “Snow Drawings” accentuates the beauty and uniqueness of the natural environment, and thus inspires awe and appreciation for nature – especially as modern society becomes increasingly disconnected from the natural world.